LOCAL BODY RATES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17639, 1 December 1931, Page 3

LOCAL BODY RATES

CROWN AS MORTGAGEE LIABILITY REFUSED (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, last night. According to a letter received by the 1 ’clone Borough Council this evening from the A],blister of Finance, the Government expects local bodies to hoar their proportion of the loss of rates on properties mortgaged to the Crown. The lion. W. Dowriio Slow-art advised llial the policy ot the Slate lending departments- in providing funds ill. low rates to facilitate the erection of houses and the opening' up of Die country for settlement had materially, I hough indirectly, assisted an contributing fo the prosperity of: local districts. - It was not unreasonable, therefore, that the local bodies concerned should now, in times of adversity, bear a proportion of the loss of the rates, as the State stood to lose considerably more than the local bodies in regard to the properties concerned. The State lending departments worked on a particularly small margin of profit and, if any additional liability for rates in respect of mortgaged properties were incurred, _it Would be impossible to avoid passing the additional cost on to the general taxpayer oi‘ raising the rate of interest on future loans. ft was not proposed, there tore, to amend the existing law. After a brief discussion, it was decided to confer with the Lower Hntt Borough Council on the subject.